


Take Me Back to the Start

by 10FTW



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Gen, basically it's the first time ronan sleeps at st agnes, i might add more later - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 18:14:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5385575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/10FTW/pseuds/10FTW
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ronan would never look like this, curled in on himself as if he wanted to be as small as possible. No, that was Adam's job, to take up as little space as he could, to disappear into the woodwork. Something was definitely wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Me Back to the Start

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first trc fic so it's just something really simple. The characters belong to Maggie but this story is mine
> 
> Title from Coldplay's The Scientist

This is how it began.

Adam woke up to the feeling that something was wrong. Feelings like that weren't uncommon, they had started just after he'd sacrificed himself to Cabeswater. There would be a whisper of a breeze through his hair, feather-light touches across his face, and a soft rustle of leaves he could hear in his deaf ear, and then the days after would be miserable. Anything from a slight off-balance feeling to nausea so bad he almost passes out would follow him around wherever he went. This feeling was more akin to a tightening in his chest, just behind his ribs, making it hard to breathe, making his entire body tense up.  It pulled him down the steps, into the open hall of the church.

Adam's eyes scanned the rows of pews, almost missing the hunched form in the back. _Ronan_ the feeling provided, but no, this was wrong. Ronan was war wrapped in the figure of a boy, barely contained within razor sharp looks, savage smiles, and curling black ink; a venomous snake, looking for any opportunity to strike. He would never look like this, curled in on himself as if he wanted to be as small as possible. No, that was Adam's job, to take up as little space as he could, to disappear into the woodwork. Something was definitely wrong.

Soundlessly, Adam made his way up the pews. Up close, he could make out more details of Ronan's form. He sat with his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped so tightly his knuckles turned pale through the growing bruises on them, head rested on his front fingers, tense all over. There was a dark, blooming bruise on the left side of his face and every breath brought a twitch around his eye, as if from pain.

"Hey," Adam said softly, not wanting to violate the quiet of the church. Ronan didn't acknowledge him, just did his slow smoker's breath, in through the nose, out through mouth.  Adam sat down next to him on the pew.

"What happened?" He asked. No reply. "Do you want to come up?" Adam put his hand on Ronan's shoulder, but that was the wrong move, all it did was make Ronan tense up even more, so he removed it and stood up. "I have some ice" (truth) "and an extra blanket." (That wasn't technically a lie. Adam could afford to give Ronan one of the threadbare sheets from his bed. He'd gone to bed cold more than a few times in his life.) Adam turned and walked back toward the apartment. After what seemed like an eternity, he heard the pew creak as Ronan stood and followed him up the old steps. 

"Your apartment is shit," Ronan said as he stepped inside, but there was no real venom behind his words, only a dead flatness as if something had drained all the emotion, even anger, out of him leaving only a husk. 

"At least it's my shit," Adam replied as he handed Ronan a sheet and a bag of ice. Ronan took the sheet without a word and eyed Adam up and down. Adam knew how he looked, too-skinny limbs from not eating enough, dark bags under his eyes from not sleeping enough, worn sweats and a shirt, stretched out from too much use. He turned away.

"Try to get some sleep. We have school tomorrow and Gansey will have words with both of us if you're late," Adam told him as he climbed into bed. Ronan huffed a small laugh and Adam turned out the lamp.

 

When he woke up the next day, there was nobody else in the apartment, and his sheet was back on his bed, as if the previous night had been only a dream. Adam sighed and prepared to go to work, not noticing that the uneasy feeling behind his chest had completely disappeared.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments/suggestions appreciated


End file.
